Do you enjoy travel? How long is your bucket list? Does it include a safari in Kenya? If not, maybe you should consider a bigger bucket. I recently spent two weeks in Kenya, and it was the trip of a lifetime.
Kenya, on the eastern side of central Africa, is the most stable nation in the region. Its economy depends heavily on tourism, and guests are always welcomed warmly. Nairobi weather may be the best kept secret on the planet with temperatures seldom falling below 55 F (13 C) or above 80 F (26 C). It's only slightly below the equator, and the idea of equatorial Africa sounds like a steam bath, but the city's mile-high elevation keeps the climate temperate. With my sister and brother-in-law living in Nairobi, I couldn't resist the trip.
This nation has learned to protect its precious wildlife. After all, the animals are Kenya's biggest draw. Nairobi may be the only city in the world with a national park in its city limits. While the park has city on three sides, the fourth side is wide open and the wildlife move in and out as they please except for the lions, which are territorial. Nairobi National Park is home to 37 lions, which gives tourists a good reason to stay in their cars. These two are in the Safari Walk, a zoo of sorts at the entrance to the park.Inside the park, we saw a wide variety of animals, but I didn't have to go to the national park to have wildlife encounters. In the city park, I fed banana bites to a family of Sykes monkeys. One got bored with me reaching down and decided to make himself at home on my shoulder.We visited workshops where people make exquisite crafts and stores where those crafts are sold. Then came time for the four-day safari we had booked into Maasai Mara. This huge tract of land, home to many of the nation's Maasai people, lies across the river from the Serengeti. The annual migration of zebra and wildebeest across the river into Kenya had happened recently, and we were delighted by huge herds of both species.
I learned that a group of giraffes is called a tower and saw four towers, one with more than twenty members, all in the same day. One young giraffe was still trailing its umbilical cord. We watched a mother cheetah and her four near-adult cubs stalk a herd of wildebeest (they missed) and saw both lions and hyenas hunting their breakfast.Cape buffalo, white rhinos, crocodiles, hippos, baboons, and a sleeping leopard were all showing up for us as well as many other species of mammals and birds. We saw them on the ground, safe within our LandRover, and we saw them from a hot air balloon as well.
Before we ended the trip, we visited Lake Nakuru and Crescent Island, where we could walk among the animals, and spent time in a Maasai village. This truly was the adventure of a lifetime, and I am so glad I could go. If you can travel, consider adding Kenya to your bucket list. It's the adventure of a lifetime.
Susan Aylworth is the author of 25 published novels including two small-town sweet romance series set in and near the Navajo Nation and in the Sierra Nevada foothills. as well as five books in the Christmas Town series. Susan lives near Utah's Rocky Mountains. CHASING RAINBOWS, Book 10 in her Rainbow Rock Romances, was released in September and Book 6 in the Christmas Town series is coming soon. Susan loves travel, music, her large and scattered family, perfect raspberry jam, and hearing from readers. Contact her at her website: susanaylworthauthor.com, or via susan.aylworth.author@gmail.com, also @SusanAylworth.
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